Summary

In Chapter 1, Sophia and Cornelis, her husband, are eating dinner. Sophia describes how she has not yet died and been reborn. She is young. Her husband is old. He begins talking about immortality. Sophia believes that he is making the comment because she has yet to bear him any children. To her surprise, Cornelis is actually referring to having their portrait painted. He has hired Jan van Loos to paint them. After dinner, Cornelis reads from the Bible. The passage describes how the goodness of a man fades like a flower.

In Chapter 2, Maria, the maid, is going about her work and thinking about Willem, her lover. Whenever she makes love to Willem she closes the curtains of the bed to close out God and His disapproval. She dreams that Cornelis and Sophia have died and that she and Willem live in the...